Word: cavendish
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...spite of the fury of Ethel Barrymore, and both authors' unconvincing protests that the play's Cavendish family had little to do with the Barrymores, The Royal Family ran 345 nights in New York alone before going to London and then on to become one of the most popular and renowned plays of the century. The current revival, now playing at the Wilbur Theater in Boston through November 13, is an enchanting piece of work. It is a warm, witty play about a great acting family on one level, about the theatrical profession on another, and, on a third level...
Kaufman and Ferber have embodied--but never too seriously--this peculiar blend of love and commitment in the figure of the late Aubrey Cavendish, the patriarch of this royal family of the theater, whose portrait hangs high on the wall in the Cavendish living room. The great Aubrey Cavendish never quit. He allowed himself time off from his work only once in his life, after finishing the last performance of his last tour, which was ending that night. He did all four curtain calls and only when the curtain had dropped for the last time did he allow himself...
...this theme is really only an undercurrent in what is more overtly a delightfully humorous and energetic play. Eva Le Gallienne, tritely but rightly called "one of the truly great ladies of the American theater," plays Fanny Cavendish, the aged grande dame of the family and of the stage, apparently modeled after Mrs. John Drew, the famous actress and manager of Philadelphia's Arch Street Theater at the end of the last century, and grandmother of Lionel, Ethel and John Barrymore. Eva Le Gallienne's performance is a masterpiece. She is the clear, ringing voice of Kaufman's satirical commentary...
...they were committed to each other with the same complete dedication that binds the Cavendishes of The Royal Family to one another, a devotion that draws its vitality from the same root that invigorates their work. No matter how much the profession of acting puts unreasonable demands upon their lives, and no matter how unreasonable are the demands that one Cavendish puts on another, the commitment is never broken. It may be questioned in the course of the play, as in the course of their lives, but ultimately it is the foundation upon which everything else is built...
After his expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1974 and a stopover in Switzerland, Alexander Solzhenitsyn has packed his bags once again. Believing himself to be in danger from Soviet agents in Zurich, the Nobel prizewinner has apparently decided to settle near Cavendish, Vt. Though the author has kept mum about the move, a friend of his has recently purchased a home with 50.7 acres of land for $150,000 and acquired a town permit authorizing $250,000 in renovations. Solzhenitsyn, who listed Cavendish as his next residence with the U.S. Immigration Service, seems to have made a thorough adjustment...